Chappal Wadi (Lombard)/plot
A heavily laden Lockheed Ventura takes off from the Biafran town of Enugu headed for Cameroon. On board are pilots Saturnino Valdez and Kurt Hurwitz, both mercenaries fighting on the Biafran side of the Nigerian civil war, and the lone passenger, Major Alulu Okuru, a senior Biafran military officer. The weather is very bad and the pilots want to turn back but Okuru refuses. He has an important meeting, the future of the Biafran revolution hangs on it. His boss, General Ochukwe had been willing to risk his last aircraft for it. The pilots tell Okuru to go and check that his cargo in the cabin is secure. On their own, Valdez and Hurwitz plot how to get their hands on the payload. There are crates and crates but also a mysterious attache case which Okuru is carrying. Hurwitz goes into the cabin. On cue, Valdez gives the plane a lurch to throw Okuru off his balance. Hurwitz then knocks the Biafran out with his pistol. He tries to open the attach case but it's locked. On the floor, Okuru has pulled out the pin from a grenade and looks up at Hurwitz. Come and get the keys, traitor, he says. The grenade detonates, cracking the plane open. It crashes. Okuru and Hurwitz are dead but Valdez is thrown clear although badly wounded. Over in Tuscany, Biggles and Algy are whizzing along on a motorbiking holiday. Biggles in his BSA challenges Algy on his Vespa scooter to a race. Algy accepts but rounding a corner, he has to swerve to avoid a tractor and is thrown off the road. The tractor is driven by a young girl, Ornella. She offers to take Biggles and Algy in her trailer to her farmhouse. Algy doesn't mind. He thinks he has died and is in paradise and forecasts a long convalescence. The farm belongs to Ornella's grandfather, Romolo Zamboni di Salerano. More pleasures await Algy as he is handed over to be taken care of by the old man's nurse, Maria. Meanwhile Romolo shows Biggles round the house. The old man had once been an Italian soldier in Africa and his son had been a fighter pilot who had died in combat. The house is full of memorabilia from Abyssinia, including a Fiat CR.42 fighter which his son had flown. That's all in the past. Ornella, one of the two daughters his son had, now helps him manage the winery and farm. He had hoped Adriana, the other grand daughter would help also, but after graduating in geology, she had gone off on a humanitarian mission and now runs a dispensary in Chappal Wadi, in the southeast of Nigeria. His only link with her is by short wave radio and he has heard nothing from her for weeks. That night, Biggles is awakened by a noise. Romolo is on the short wave radio. Adriana is alive! But she is asking for urgent supplies. Romolo and Ornella decide to get help from an NGO which supports Adriana. Meanwhile, at the Agosa ski resort in Switzerland, a hitman named Jonas Korb arrives to meet a mysterious client. The radio of the crashed Ventura has started working again, he says, now being used by a humanitarian organisation. He wants Korb to recover whatever can be salvaged from the crashed plane before others can get to it. Korb agrees, for a price of two million dollars and carte blanche. Ornella successfully mobilises support for Adriana and supplies begin to pour in. She has also found a pilot--one Lucellino Gaetano, a former naval aviator. But he is out in a Piaggio P.136 flying boat over the sea when a mysterious unmarked P-40 Warhawk turns up and shoots him down. It turns out the killing had been ordered by Korb and was done to buy him time. For Ornella, the death of Gaetano is a disaster. There seems no way she can find another pilot in time for the planned departure. But Biggles steps up and offers to fly the mission, much to Ornella's delight. Algy refuses to be left behind, and insists on going along, much to Maria's consternation! Biggles, Algy and Ornella head for their departure airport at Milan Malpensa. The pilots are delighted with the plane Ornella has chartered: a Lockheed Constellation. But there is also bad news as the medical staff who were coming along had pulled out at the last minute. Then a Father Alois Richter shows up. He is a trained first-aid worker as well as a priest and asks to join the expedition. Ornella is delighted--it is, she says, divine intervention. The plane departs, refuelling at Malta and Douala and finally heads into Nigeria by night. They are reaching their point of no return when Algy spots lights on the horizon--an improvised flare path has been lit up with hand held torches and flaming barrels of oil. Biggles puts the heavy aircraft down. Adriana is delighted to see her sister and the unloading of the supplies begins. There are also a lot of sick children at the dispenary who need to be evacuated but Biggles tells it can't be done so soon--the Constellation has become bogged down in the mud. Biggles and Algy work with some of the adults from the village to free the plane from the mud. Meanwhile Father Richter gets to work dispensing first aid and vaccinating the children. But there's also some strange goings on. Richter seems very curious about how the radio at the dispensary managed to work again. Onabe, the clinical assistant tells him they salvaged it from a crashed plane nearby. There had been one survior, Valdez. Father Richter asks to see his things--he might be able to notify the family. On board the Constellation, Algy hears Richter's voice on the radio--what is he doing? Didn't he just warn Adriana not to use the radio in case it drew attention? After much effort, the Constellation is freed. But there's possible trouble--a Hughes 500 helicopter flies over and spots them. They had better depart that night. Biggles and Algy return to the village but everything is strangely quiet. Everyone seems to be hiding. Finally they find ... one Colonel Futsack, a mercenary from South Africa, and his group of soldiers has taken over control of the village. Adriana tells them the colonel wants to salvage something from the crashed Ventura and then use their Constellation to get away, abandoning the children. Meanwhile, in the UK, Air Commodore Raymond arrives by helicopter at a safehouse for an intelligence briefing. Some weeks ago, a Ventura had taken off from Enugu in rebel held Biafra with the war fund of General Oriji Ochokwe, a Biafran military commander. His aide, Major Okuru was on his way to a meeting to Cameroon, probably for secret negotiations and to buy weapons. The plane had disappeared near Chappal Wadi but some time later, the radio mysteriously started working again, this time calling an NGO in Tuscany for help to be sent to a dispensary in the region treating refugees from the civil war. A Constellation had then departed Libreville for Chappal Wadi. Then, Colonel Futsack, acting on the orders of General Ochokwe had taken control of the dispensary. The General wanted his war chest of bar gold and diamonds back, and the availability of a Constellation seemed too good a chance to miss. To complicate things further, British intelligence also know that "The African Mining Centre", a syndicate operated by an international group of businessmen, are trying to bypass Ochokwe and get their hands on the diamonds and maps of the diamond mine for themselves. They have appointed a hitman named Jonas Korb, who is probably on the scene. What has this to do with us, Bertie and Ginger, who are at the briefing, ask. Raymond tells it to them straight: Biggles and Algy had been flying that Constellation. Back at Chappal Wadi, Futsack has rounded up all the able-bodied adults--he needs them to hep move the gold. He then shoots up the radio and departs for the crash site in trucks. He leaves Owema, one of his strongmen, to take charge of the two girls at the village. After a journey by truck and then on foot over difficult terrain, the wreck is found and the gold recovered. The trucks return to the village. Biggles had been worried about leaving the two girls with Owema but Algy says that Maria had told him the girls were wel able to look after themselves. Through a demonstration of martial arts, they had been able to subdue Owema, leaving them free to continue to treat the children. Futsack now wants the gold loaded on the Constellation. Father Richter suggests that he go in his trucks rather than take the plane and abandon the children but Futsack silences him with a blow. There's the drone of many aircraft engines in the sky. Futsack looks up in dismay. Nigerian Federal paratroops! The mercenaries are distracted by the imminent attack so Biggles and Algy make their move and knock out their captors. Futsack has been knocked to the ground but manages to draw a pistol and takes aim at Biggles but Father Richter shoots him dead. He had no choice, he says. Nigerian gunships are shooting up the village. Biggles calls to everyone to retreat to the Constellation. The Nigerian troops can help themselves to the gold. Adriana joins the group, holding Okuru's attache case. Not to forget the main thing, she says. "Where do you think you're going," a voice calls to them. It's Bertie and Ginger! They have arrived with a group of British special forces to rescue them. The Nigerian troops suppress the rebels while the British commandoes secure the landing ground. Biggles and his party board the Constellation. All the children to be evacuated are already embarked and they take off. They head for Fernando Po, where Raymond is waiting. Bertie and Ginger's strong entreaties had finally persuaded him to organise a commando mission. He had also managd to get the Nigerian military to cooperate--something, Bertie thinks, to do with the prospect of getting the gold and the noise made by the international press about the humanitarian situation in Biafra. A pity they have to go back empty handed, Ornella thinks. But no, Adriana says. She has the attache case. It was an obsession with Valdez up to his death. So she had sent the children to search for the wreck and retrieve it. It contains rough diamonds and maps and title deeds to the mine. Biggles is puzzled. Futsack only wanted the gold ... he probably didn't know about the diamonds. Which implies that someone else has a hand in it, someone whom they haven't seen but will soon show up. "Well thought out, gentlemen!" It's Father Richter with a gun! He introduces himself as Jonas Korb, an executor for special missions, sometimes unusual but always lucartive. He orders Adriana to hand over the attache case and then jumps out of the plane by parachute. At Fernando Po, Raymond debriefs the team. General Ochokwe is already negotiating with the Nigerian government for an honourable settlement to the conflict. The loss of the diamonds and maps don't really matter. Biggles is surprised that the British government, which had supported the Nigerian government in the civil war, would have agreed to intervene. Raymond explains that the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict and the pressure from the international press had changed some minds. Back to Tuscany and everyone celebrates at a party. Adriana tells Biggles she plans to return to Chappal Wadi. She has bought the Constellation and also some well-equipped medical vans. Where did she get the money, Biggles asks. From the diamonds! Adriana is a geologist, after all. She had been suspicious of Richter and all the questions he asked so she had hidden the real diamonds in her belt. Richter/Korb had merely jumped with ordinary stones. He did get away with the maps, but then again, he had saved Biggles' life. Ornella is introducing Bertie to the local food, but where is Maria? There's no need to worry about her, she is out on a spin with Algy on his Vespa! Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)